The sample question that follows asks students to identify the sounds of various instruments. The music played for this question comes from the opening of American composer George Gershwin's piece "Rhapsody in Blue."

The question below is about the next piece of music that you will hear. The music will be played two times. After you hear the music, you will have one minute to answer. Before you hear the music, read the question.

At the beginning of the piece, a solo is played on

	a flute
	an oboe
	a saxophone
	a clarinet

The correct answer is D.

Percentage of students in each response category at grade 8: 2008

Choice A	Choice B	Choice C	Choice D	Omitted
12	15	22	50	#

# Rounds to zero.
NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2008 Arts Assessment.

See more about this question in the NAEP Questions Tool.

On the map of NAEP music items, this question maps to a scale score of 228.

Learn more about what the arts assessment measures.